MY NEW YEAR’S EXPERIENCE – 3

The Afternoon of New Year’s Eve

After a light lunch I settled in the living room to continue reading a book that I started Thursday soon after it arrived. I had ordered it on Amazon Prime. It never fails to amaze me how fast something arrives after placing an order!

My wife and daughter had left to browse movie DVDs. It has become a family tradition to watch a movie on New Year’s Eve, so they went to shop for the evening entertainment. And my son was also gone; he went to his favorite place and activity, to exercise and play basketball at the YMCA. And Amber, Cookie and Kitty, our three cats, were busy in their activity – napping!

The book was still where I had left it, on the table next to the soft recliner. It’s a rather large hardback book with over 400 pages. I was almost finished. Yesterday I read practically all day and late into the night. It’s that kind of book; fast moving and action packed. It didn’t take long for me to be engrossed. It is a novel, a work of fiction. I had read the author’s first novel about 10 years ago and when I heard that he was writing his second, I had to have my own copy. Glenn Kleier is the author and his first novel has the title The Last Day. You cannot read this novel and not be impressed with the talent of Kleier’s writing ability, but also the enormous research that obviously went into it. Well, the novel I was now in the midst of reading treated me to these same qualities of the author.

The Knowledge of Good & Evil is the title of the book that I am reading. In some ways I find the book maddening. It is about a man determined to make contact with his dead parents. Ian was only nine when they died, and when he grew to adulthood he developed a passionate desire to prove they lived on. The method he chose was to die, well, temporarily, through controlled NDE (Near Death Experience) experiments. This alone is riveting to read, but the intrigues that Kleier builds around this is nothing less than the work of an astounding creativity and genius. The supporting caste is the Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and hardcore theological themes. Ian Baringer, the protagonist in the story, takes on the entire Church in his quest to find the truth of the location of his parents in the after life. The plots and sub-plots are nearly breathless to read.

Well, by mid-afternoon I finished Kleier’s book, laid it aside and for the first time noticed how very tired I was. Unusual for me, I went to our bedroom and crawled into bed. Usually when I nap, I do this in the recliner in my office and study (and prayer room).

I slept soundly for over 2 hours. When I woke I was cold and could not get warm, not even with extra layers that I put on. And I noticed that the mild tooth ache that I had been nursing most of the day had now turned into a throbbing pain.

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To be continued

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